the boats.'
And indeed it was very doubtful if they could do either; for the
flood-tide was now coming like a racehorse over the sands, and hiding
its fox-falls and gullies. Others said, 'You'll never get back to the
ship now; there's deep water round her bows by this time! Come on!'

But some of the men had left brothers on the vessel, and this attracted
three of the company back to the wreck, and Marsh was persuaded to join
the returning band. And so they parted, there being danger either way:
Marsh with three others back to the ship, and Philpot with three others
to the boats; and both parties now ran for their lives.

Looking back, they saw Marsh standing in uncertainty, and they waved to
him. But he finally decided--little knowing at the time how momentous
was his decision--for the ship. He and his party reached it with great
difficulty, finding deep water around it, and they were at the last
minute pulled on board through the water by lines slung to them from
their friends.

Of the others, each man for himself, as best he could, 'pursues his
way,'--

And swims or sinks or wades or creeps,

till they all come as close as the rough sea permits them to their
boats, and stand breathless on a narrow and rapidly contracting patch
of sand.

'Upon this bank and shoal' clustered the four men. The sea was so
heavy that the weighty Deal boats did not dare to back into it. The
men at first thought of trying to swim to them; but a strong tide
running right across their course rendered that out of the question.

Fortunately a tug-boat hove in sight, bound to the wrecked schooner,
and seeing the men waving and their dangerous plight, eased her
engines. Deal boats were towing astern, and Deal boatmen were on
board, and out of their number Finnis and Watts bravely volunteered to
go to the rescue in the tug-boat's punt.

This boat being light and without ballast, they at considerable risk
brought off the four men to their own boats, when they forthwith,
forgetting past hardship and perils, got up sail for the wrecked
schooner, to see how their comrades who had returned, and those who
remained on board, were faring.

They found the tug-boat close to the wreck--say half a mile off--and
also many other Deal boats; but none ventured nearer than that
distance, and none could get nearer.

The wind, which had been blowing from south-west freshly, was dropping
into a calm, while great rollers from an entirely opposit